Awatea '14

Awatea Cabernet/Merlots '16

A wine that exhibits the best qualities of great Hawke’s Bay cabernets/merlot - intense aromatic berry fruit characters, a rich mid-palate and a supple tannin structure. Awatea is a full flavoured wine that can be enjoyed over 8-10 years.

VineyardsThe grapes for Awatea ’14 were hand harvested from Te Mata Estate’s vineyards between 10 March and 3 April 2014.

WinemakingThe separate parcels of grapes were destemmed before a traditional warm, plunged fermentation and extended maceration on skins. The resulting wines were then run to new and seasoned French oak barrels for 16 months’ ageing. Throughout this time, they were regularly topped and racked. The separate wines were blended in January 2015, then returned to barrel for their second winter. The finished wine was then egg white fined and bottled in November 2015.

Cellaring PotentialClosed with a natural cork that will allow Awatea ’14 to continue to evolve in bottle and provide great enjoyment up to 10 years from harvest.

OriginAwatea takes its name from the historic ship SS Awatea (a Maori word meaning “Eye of the Dawn”) that sailed the Auckland – Sydney – Wellington route in the late 1930s. The Awatea was requisitioned as a troop transport in WWII and was sunk off Algeria in 1942.